The Sky is Falling
by Kila9Nishika
Summary: Sirius doesn't understand. And then, one nightmare of a day, he does.


**Disclaimer:** As I am a simple person who does not own tons and tons of money, I must admit to being a plain American girl, and not JK Rowling. Therefore, I do not own Harry Potter and the connected involved characters. Oh, well...

**AN: **Very angsty, for me... but really, just kinda sad. I may do a follow-up, if I get reviews. Please REVIEW!

**AN2:** Warnings for the unsuspecting - there is torture, and implied unrequited slash. Also, implied something else that makes me rate this as Mature. If you don't see it, that's okay. I purposely wrote it very obscured, because this is all just rambled-jumbled-Sirius-thoughts.

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**The Sky is Falling**

_The sky is falling._

When Remus told the other boys in the dorm the Muggle tale of Chicken Little, Sirius' first thought was that the story was silly, and what was the point anyway? But, like everything having to do with Remus, the story remained in the back of his head, one particular line steadfastly holding on.

_The sky is falling._

Sirius thought that, of all of the Muggle phrases he'd heard, this one was definitely one of the oddest. How can the sky fall? The sky is, naturally, the air above the ground. The sky _can't_ fall. So he asked Remus what it meant, and Remus just gave that lazy Saturday-finished-homework-smile and said that the _point_ of the _story_ was that the sky _wasn't_ falling. But that answer, despite Sirius' habit of taking everything Remus said as gospel, (who knew that Muggles had been to the _moon_?) didn't help.

_The sky is falling_.

It was a year later, the summer before Third Year, that Sirius was put under the Imperious Curse for the first time. He hated it, the feeling that he could be ordered to do anything, say anything, and he couldn't fight it. But he tried. He tried and tried to fight it, and, by late August, he managed to snap the mental bonds. But he couldn't help but worry about the feeling of impending doom.

_The sky is falling_.

That Christmas, Andromeda was blasted off of the Black Family Tapestry. Sirius ignored it, and went to the wedding (Andromeda and a Hufflepuff Grad, Ted Tonks,) after he got back to Hogwarts. But the clouds of dissent were gathering about Hogwarts, and Sirius could feel the coming storm when he found himself cornered by his Slytherin cousins after classes on January evening.

_The sky is falling._

When they began learning about Animagi, Sirius was hooked. True, James was the Transfiguration genius, and Moony was the one who was just-plain-brilliant-about-everything, but the Animagus transformation was something that Sirius saw as being within his grasp. And, unlike most things Sirius wanted to do, this had nothing to do with a prank. No, Sirius wanted to learn how to be an Animagus so as to hold up Remus' sky – to keep the self-flagellating werewolf a little safer.

_The sky is falling._

They had managed it – to become Animagi. James was a stag, proud and elegant. Peter was a rat, and that made Sirius nervous – there were rats in the basements and dungeons of Twelve Grimmauld Place, and he had been locked in there with them before. Rats were nasty. But Sirius was most proud of himself, because he had gotten it first, despite being third-best at Transfiguration to James and Remus, and despite having some Muggle thing that Remus called "Attention-Deficit-Disorder," which meant that he had trouble paying attention to stuff, Sirius became an Animagus first. James thought that he was glad because of that, but Sirius was also glad because he was a dog, a Grim. And dogs are related to wolves, get it?

_The sky is falling_.

It was at the end of fifth year, that Bellatrix and Snape and Lestrange One and Lestrange Two and Malfoy-the-Cousin-of-Lucius cornered him. Sirius tried to get away, he used all of his tricks, but Slytherins know too many tricks and – and – and Sirius found himself fighting off the Imperious Curse, and no, no, he _wouldn't ever tell_. But then Bellatrix (who liked the Unforgivables a little too much to be sane,) cast the Cruciatus, and Sirius was biting through his tongue _don't scream, don't tell, nonononono_ – And then, Lestrange was – was – doing _that_, the thing that most wizards scorned because it was _Muggle_ torture and it was – _no_ – and then Lestrange Two joined Lestrange One, and Malfoy was laughing, and Snape was casting some spell, and Bella was casting the Cruciatus again – then, then, "_Imperio_," and Sirius felt his fight, battle within, but he _couldn't_.

_The sky is falling_.

He couldn't fight. He had no fight left, and he'd bitten almost through his tongue and his throat was raw from screaming as he attempted to beat off Lestranges One and Two, and Malfoy was still snickering in a sneerish sort of way, and Snape was casting – "_Crucio! Crucio!_" and then Bellatrix lifted her wand again and reiterated the curse that Sirius fought with every fiber of his body. "_Imperio!_" And Sirius couldn't fight anymore. As his body gave out, and Sirius collapsed, he could feel words spilling from his lips, something – something – but he no longer even understood English anymore, he was so far gone –

_The sky is falling_.

Now, more than ever, every word Remus Lupin had ever said to Sirius was running through his head. James wasn't speaking to him, he was angry. Peter wasn't speaking to him, he was a good little James-Potter-shadow. Remus wasn't talking to him, he felt upset and betrayed – and that was the worst thing ever, for Sirius. Sirius, who always woke up in the morning to hear Remus chattering on about some boring Muggle thing in an effort to wake him before classes started. Sirius, who had learned everything to keep himself on the grade-level in Transfiguration and History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures and Charms from Remus. Sirius, who had learned all sorts of stuff about Muggles from Remus, who had cried on Remus' shoulder after a particularly bad holiday – Remus meant the world to Sirius, Remus was his sky.

And now, Sirius could understand the strange, strange phrase. The sky was falling, he said. The sky is falling.

No, Sirius thought. He was oddly still, staring out the window at the peaceful ground of Hogwarts. The grounds belied the stirring dangers of war and conflict, but right now Sirius could not have cared less if that Dark Guy called himself Willamar or Voldemort.

Because right now, the sky was falling.

_The sky is falling_.

**FIN

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**REVIEW PLEASE!** Ten reviews and I'll write a sequel-interquel-related story! So review!**  
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